Chapter 162: Samyang County Gathering
Starting with the Daejin Escort Agency, escort agencies began pouring into Samyang County.
Everyone arrived earlier than scheduled.
Furthermore, perhaps to avoid looking weak in a gathering of escort agencies, they moved in fully-equipped formations as if they were embarking on a grade-A escort mission.
Needless to say, Samyang County did not have the capacity to accommodate so many people.
“They had reasons to hurry.”
[They must have had their own calculations.]
Just as Master Zhang Sanfeng said, they probably guessed what the situation would be.
At least twenty escort agencies had brought fully-equipped forces.
A number that even an average-sized city would struggle to handle was bound to gather.
Let alone Samyang County, which was barely the size of a city.
“Hey, I knew it would be like this.”
“Now, now, didn’t we all roughly guess? Let’s hurry if we want to grab at least a decent spot.”
Fortunately, escort warriors are accustomed to sleeping outdoors. They all skillfully established bases on the outskirts of Samyang County.
Watching them, he breathed a sigh of relief inwardly.
They were enough people to saturate Samyang County in an instant.
No matter how skilled the Demonic Cult members were at hiding their demonic energy, with this many people, he couldn’t remain entirely at ease.
Indeed, some escort agencies paid fees to rent buildings.
“Looking at the sheer numbers, the escort agencies pooling their strength would make a formidable force, wouldn’t it?”
[Disciple, are you rich?]
“……That’s true. With this many people, how much would the hiring cost even be……”
It was something he couldn’t even dare to think about.
It would cause the same problem as the Seventy-Two Fortresses of the Green Forest uniting.
While escort warriors are sometimes dismissed as third-rate extras in the martial world, they are a quite envied profession in general society. Naturally, their income is also substantial.
To hire thousands of such professionals, even a wealthy man who ranks in the top three in Hubei would have his back bent.
Since they are people who risk their lives to earn a living with their blades, it was only natural.
“It is something to think about depending on how the Green Forest acts, but…… Oh?!”
While he was reading the flow in his own way, a familiar flag caught his eye in the distance.
Unlike other escort agencies, the flag was worn, shabby, and even stained with blood.
A flag with ‘Bright Fate’ written on it was entering the village.
Ju So-ran and Myeong Il-seo.
The surroundings grew noisy at the appearance of the two.
“It’s the Bright Fate Escort Agency.”
“Just the two of them?”
“Don’t look down on them. They are close to none other than the ‘Young Heavenly Dragon’. There’s also a rumor that the Seamless Heavenly Robe, one of the Ten Great Swords of the Realm, is backing them.”
The murmurs rising from the surroundings spoke for the changed status of the Bright Fate Escort Agency.
The Bright Fate Escort Agency was no longer an existence to be ignored.
‘None other than the ‘Young Heavenly Dragon’? What kind of rumors are spreading?’
It felt like his own status had changed quite a bit while he was immersed in his training for a while.
At least, instances of being treated as a false rumor or hearsay seemed to have largely disappeared.
While he was thinking that he should look into it, Ju So-ran and Escort Leader Myeong Il-seo spotted him and walked over quickly.
Drawing everyone’s attention, the two cupped their fists and bowed to him.
“We greet the Instructor.”
“……You’ve only learned bad habits.”
They had learned well from what Senior Jang Mun-gyeong did in front of the Jungshin Merchant Group and were putting it to use.
“Is that youth…… the Young Heavenly Dragon?”
“Since his age doesn’t match Great Hero Jang…… it seems so?”
“Ugh! Earlier I said I didn’t believe it…… Mmp! Mmmp!!”
“Hey, you clueless idiot. Shut up!!”
The surroundings became chaotic.
Under the gazes staring intently as if to engrave his face in their memories this time, his cheeks felt pricked.
Although it wasn’t the first time experiencing this, he couldn’t get used to it at all.
[Give up. Giving up makes it easier. It’s not like you’re going to set up a blind date with each other, so why care about the gazes of those whose names you don’t even know?]
‘I see why Master Zhang Sanfeng was called the Untidy Taoist. Since he went around ignoring all the attention of those around him with that mindset, such a nickname must have been born.’
It felt like a lot of things were suddenly explained.
“Are you angry because I haven’t paid attention to you since the Jungshin Merchant Group incident?”
“How could we? To the one who holds the authority of absolute obedience, how could we……”
“Which means you are.”
He had been busy after the Jungshin Merchant Group incident, going to Suzhou to get the peach blossom tree, wrapping up the affairs of the Defeng Yin Clan, and so on.
During the winter that followed, he was out of his mind trying to narrow the gap in his suddenly changed senses.
Even if the Bright Fate Escort Agency felt neglected, he had no excuse.
Although Senior Jang Mun-gyeong dropped by from time to time in his place, the senior was merely a guest. He was bound to be different from the actual person in charge.
‘Since it is a place where many escort agencies are gathered, if they want to leave a clear impression…… well, I have to bear it.’
If he thought of it as the price for his mistake, it was something he had to endure.
“You’ve grown a lot, Ju So-ran.”
“Thank you.”
From Ju So-ran, who replied confidently, he could feel the solidity unique to a person in charge.
The young girl who only had grit had matured quite a bit in both body and mind.
“Did only the two of you come?”
“It’s because the others are still immature.”
Escort Leader Myeong Il-seo stepped forward for this question.
His appearance had changed no less than Ju So-ran’s.
“Do you think you are fully mature?”
“I cannot say I am at the level of…… perfection, but I barely managed to master the Cheongun Thirty-One Blade a while ago. I can mimic it well enough.”
“Cheongun Thirty-One Blade?”
Though it was a martial art he was hearing of for the first time, he could tell what kind of martial art it was right away.
A martial art refined by Master Zhang Sanfeng from Myeong Il-seo’s original saber method, which consisted of thirty-eight stances.
“Did you put my name on it?”
“Then whose name would we put on it?”
Indeed. Escort Leader Myeong Il-seo believed it was a martial art he had quickly modified on the spot.
“Cheongun Thirty-One Blade……”
No matter how limited the martial art was, it was one that Master Zhang Sanfeng had touched.
It wouldn’t have been easy to master with ordinary talent and effort.
“Senior Jang Mun-gyeong must have paid a lot of attention to you.”
“We received undeserved help.”
“Trained with the Sixteen Forms and filled with the Cheongun Thirty-One Blade……”
The problem was that he had been walking the wrong path, but he was originally a man of talent. What if his direction was corrected and uprightly refined?
He might have achieved growth worth looking forward to.
[Hmm, hmm! It will be a good entertainment.]
Master Zhang Sanfeng also showed interest. He seemed curious about how the martial art he had personally altered was embodied.
‘Growth enough to receive Senior Jang Mun-gyeong’s passing grade…….’
Perhaps in this meeting between the escort agencies, the Bright Fate Escort Agency would become the eye of the storm.
***
The first gathering held after the escort agencies had gathered as much as they could ended more casually than expected.
Perhaps because it was the first official gathering, it felt like they focused on building friendship rather than practical agendas.
However, there was one peculiarity, if indeed it was one.
‘Everyone was very interested in the Bright Fate Escort Agency.’
Since meetings of this kind were rare, they tried hard to pitch their businesses, but the one that received the most attention was, as expected, the Bright Fate Escort Agency.
Ju So-ran, the representative of the Bright Fate Escort Agency, held her ground well against the chiefs of other escort agencies who approached to test the waters.
She had really grown a lot. She could serve as a good example of human growth and potential.
Although building friendship was the main purpose on the first day, there was not a complete lack of constructive conversation.
Among them, the most interesting was the content about ‘station posts’.
It was one of the answers to the topic of what direction the escort agencies should take if the Green Forest succeeded in achieving great unification.
The idea was to station escort warriors at certain bases to build a safe flow of logistics.
If the Green Forest disappeared, the escort agencies would lose their jobs.
Although the Green Forest was not the only bandits, from the perspective of merchant groups, the major reason to pay high costs would disappear.
In fact, medium and small merchant groups often felt burdened by the costs of escort agencies.
Generally, an escort agency receives goods upon a merchant group’s request and transports them to the destination.
The cost calculation adds fees depending on the value of the goods, travel distance, and the risk of the destination to the minimum base cost.
However, the station post method establishes bases at specific paths to create safe routes and collects fees from passersby.
Although the cost per transaction would decrease, sufficient profits could be secured if the flow of traffic increased.
While it wasn’t a scale that a single escort agency could handle, it was entirely possible if the escort agencies joined forces.
Of course, there were problems.
In this case, small and medium escort agencies like the Bright Fate Escort Agency, which had a relatively small number of escort warriors, would suffer.
As the number of escort warriors was small, the bases they could secure would decrease, leading to a drop in revenue and a loss of growth momentum.
‘To put it bluntly, they want to absorb the Bright Fate Escort Agency.’
It meant they wanted to control it and extract both its martial arts and its backers.
If the majority made up their minds, ruining a person was a piece of cake.
But Ju So-ran proudly stood up against those who showed malice behind their smiles.
“The Bright Fate Escort Agency has risen again. The rebuilt agency has grown greatly through various aids, and its momentum to grow even larger is also sufficient. Since we have a firm future, ‘lacking things’ can be ‘filled quickly’. Station posts? The Bright Fate Escort Agency welcomes that proposal. Go ahead and try it.”
If they were reaching out with the intention of devouring it, she would devour them instead.
Ju So-ran openly declared war on those who approached while looking down on the Bright Fate Escort Agency.
If the number of escort warriors was insufficient, they could just fill it. Whether they recruited and trained new ones, or brought in escort warriors from other agencies.
The Bright Fate Escort Agency possessed martial arts and an enormous backer. On top of that, that backer even guided their martial arts.
No matter how much they were employed, escort warriors were also martial artists who practiced martial arts.
Any martial artist who trains in martial arts desires the teaching of a master or expert who can deliver correct training and enlightenment.
They would say they had obtained a fortuitous encounter even from learning a single stance or half a formula.
Let alone that the backers who gave the teachings were the Seamless Heavenly Robe, who held a seat in the Ten Great Swords of the Realm, and the Young Heavenly Dragon, who boasted the greatest reputation among the rising stars.
How many escort warriors would reject this condition?
It was a natural consequence that the faces of the chiefs who had approached with smiles turned sour.
Apparently, it was a trick to approach through the young Ju So-ran rather than directly dealing with me or Senior Jang Mun-gyeong, but they were hit hard.
Since then, the gazes looking down on Ju So-ran vanished.
He wondered if this was how a master felt watching their disciple grow.
Turning his eyes with pride in his chest, he saw his half-dead friend.
“Are you okay?”
“Can’t you tell by looking?”
The exhausted Baek Mu-ho let out a deep sigh.
“I feel like I’ve become a doormat used as public property.”
“……I feel like I understand, yet don’t.”
So many people had gathered that Samyang County was saturated.
Strictly speaking, they could all be called guests, and treating guests is the host’s duty.
Needless to say, a terrifying amount of work was also imposed on Baek Mu-ho, the successor who would inherit the Baek Family Escort next.
“I have to prepare plenty of liquor and food to feed those people. Even though we mobilized all the cooks from the village inns, we lacked hands, so we had to hire a lot of villagers who had free hands.”
“The merchants must be thrilled.”
There was no peak season like this.
Although the Baek Family Escort had prepared pigs and cattle in their own way, with this many people gathered, they would have to raid the nearby shops to the point of running them dry.
For the Baek Family Escort and Uncle Baek Jin-seong, who had a good reputation in the village, the merchants willingly opened their warehouse doors and poured out all their cellared liquor.
‘Liquor…….’
In a situation where large bonfires were lit for sleeping outdoors, if meat, liquor, and various delicious foods gathered, it became no different from a festival itself.
‘It is the perfect setup for trouble to brew…….’
Sure enough.
“Let’s have a fight!”
An escort warrior smelling faintly of liquor picked a fight with the Bright Fate Escort Agency as if it were a fun entertainment.